Barrick Gold hits record $837 million net income

Barrick Gold Corp. saw a record profit of US$837 million this quarter, reporting a net income of $0.85 per share. The record net income is a huge change fromrobo sand manufacturing process last year's third quarter loss of $5.35 billion – $6.07 per share – and puts its year-to-date profit almost $7 billion over last Q3's total.

Barrick saw quarterly gold production of 2.06 million ounces – more than expected, and at a lower cost per ounce than projected. While Barrick reported higher gold production and sales both in the quarter and on the year over 2009, the company did report a large drop in copper production on the quarter, down to 84 million pounds from last Q3's 104 million pounds. However, Barrick, the world's largest gold mining company, has sold more copper this Q3 than last – and is selling gold and copper for much higher prices on average than last fall. Things don't just look good in the short term, the company said. When its Pueblo Viejo 3 project in the Dominican Republic and Pascua-Lama project on the Chilean-Argentinian border go online, Barrick should see annual gold production hit 9 million ounces in five years...